Louvre-Lens

The Louvre-Lens is a branch of the Louvre Museum in Lens, in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, at 99 rue Paul Bert on a former coal-mining site. Its main hall, the Gallery of Time, shows about 200 works lent from Paris in one chronological line, and it is free to enter. It suits art lovers travelling between Paris and Lille and families looking for a calmer Louvre.

President François Hollande opened it on 4 December 2012, as part of a plan to share national collections with regions outside Paris. The museum stands on a 20-hectare pithead site that closed in the 1960s. The Tokyo practice SANAA, led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, designed its low buildings of glass and polished aluminium, working with Imrey Culbert. The landscape architect Catherine Mosbach created the park, letting the old mine site turn gradually into meadow and woodland.

Gallery of Time and exhibitions

The Gallery of Time is a single hall about 120 metres long and about 3,000 square metres in area. Its works run from around 3500 BC to the mid-19th century, so ancient, Islamic, medieval and European pieces can be seen side by side along one route. Loans rotate, and the display was renewed with a new chapter in 2024. The Glass Pavilion shows works in a smaller setting with views over the mining landscape.

A separate gallery hosts temporary exhibitions. From 14 February to 7 December 2026 the Comédie-Française exhibition shows about twenty works on the Mezzanine (level -1). So Cute! The Art of Happiness gathers nearly 300 works on why art makes people feel good and runs until 18 January 2027.